The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the flow of articles to a case packing machine and, more particularly, to an apparatus which stops the forward movement of articles onto a case loading machine when a charge of articles are being loaded into a case.
Case packing machines such as utilized for depositing articles into cartons or cases are well known, and one such case packing machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,034. In the article loading machine disclosed in that patent, twenty-four bottles are deposited into the cases simultaneously. These bottles are lowered through a grid set into the case. The bottles are fed to the case packer on a continuously moving conveyor, therefore, it is necessary to restrain the bottles to prevent them from being delivered from the conveyor to the case packing machine when the bottles are being loaded into the case. As illustrated, this is accomplished by means of a presser plate which bears down on the top of the seventh and eighth bottles in each of the rows so as to prevent them from being pushed into the case packer. After the first six bottles of each row have been deposited into the case by laterally shifting the bottle supporting member, the bottle supporting member is shifted laterally back to its bottle supporting position. The presser plate is raised off of the bottles and an additional charge of bottles are permitted to be loaded onto the case packer.
In another device such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,325,967, additional bottles are prevented from being fed to the case packer by stop pins which are shifted laterally when the bottles are being loaded into the case packer. One problem with utilizing the laterally shifting pins for preventing the flow of bottles to the case packer is that if a bottle is out of alignment, the pin will strike the bottle preventing the supporting bars which permit the bottles to be dropped into the case from being shifted laterally. Another problem incurred by using a pin or stop which is shifted laterally into the path of bottles is that the diameter or thickness of the vertically extending stop is limited to the thickness of the guide plates so as to permit the bottles to pass between the guide plates when the stops are retracted. As a result, the pins or stops tend to break off, bend or wear out.
Examples of other article or bottle spreading devices utilized in conjunction with case packers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,350,560; 2,755,611; and 2,898,715. All of these patents include mechanisms which raise abutments into the path of the incoming articles so as to prevent their forward movement while a charge of articles are being deposited into a case.
One problem with the bottle separating devices heretofore utilized is that there was no ready means of adjusting the location that the abutment is brought into the path of incoming bottles for accommodating different size bottles.